Mark Sanchez: Why New York Jets Quarterback Is a Fantasy Sleeper in Week 7

Hopefully by now, you have already made plans to secure a quarterback to replace your starter if his team hasn't had its bye week yet. Heading into Week 7, 20 percent of the league won’t be playing. The quarterbacks on bye include Peyton Manning, Brady Quinn, Philip Rivers, Matt Ryan, Ryan Tannehill and Michael Vick.

Those are four widely-used fantasy quarterbacks. If you’re in a competitive league and haven’t secured the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Josh Freeman for Week 7, you might have to turn a desperate eye to Mark Sanchez of the New York Jets.

That might not be so bad.

Sanchez hasn’t embarrassed himself in the last two weeks. Despite turning the ball over twice against the Houston Texans on Monday night in Week 5, he looked decent with a receiving corps that has been ravaged by injuries.

He finished that game with 230 passing yards and a touchdown.

Sanchez tossed two touchdowns to guys named Hill (Stephen and Jason) in Week 6 but only threw for 82 passing yards.

That’s because Shonn Greene and the running game were rolling dudes when the Jets faced the Indianapolis Colts.

New York racked up 252 yards rushing and three touchdowns in the ground game, averaging 5.7 yards per carry as a team.

With that much success running the football, passing it just isn’t quite as attractive.

Sanchez and the Jets will face off against the New England Patriots, a team known to put up some points, in Week 7.

Another thing New England does is allow other teams to score points in the passing game. The Patriots have surrendered at least 293 passing yards and three touchdowns to each and every quarterback they’ve faced in the last four games.

One of those is Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks—whose primary job responsibilities through the first five weeks of the season consisted of handing the football to Marshawn Lynch and not turning it over.

New England hasn’t intercepted a quarterback in two games.

With Stephen Hill and tight end Dustin Keller playing in their second consecutive game for what has been a sorely undermanned Jets offense, Sanchez should be able to put up solid numbers in Week 7.

The Patriots have done a decent job of stopping running backs from getting fantasy points this season, so it is reasonable to expect the Jets to come out throwing the ball.